A SURVEY of patients in Scotland has found that 89 per cent felt that the care provided by their GP surgery was excellent or good but patients were less positive about out-of-hour services.
The results come from the Scottish Patient Experience Survey of GP and Local NHS Services 2011/12 which was posted to a random sample of people registered with a GP practice in November 2011. Over 145,000 people responded.
At least 90 per cent of patients responded positively to all of the questions about doctors and nurses, but when it came to the experience of accessing GP practice services, only 75 per cent of patients rated the overall arrangements to see a doctor as excellent or good. Similar results were reported in regard to out-of-hours care with only 72 per cent of patients rating overall care as excellent or good.
Factors having the strongest effect on patient experience included the size of the GP practice - people reported better experiences at smaller practices. Age also had an effect on patient attitude with older patients reporting better experiences.
In a statement released on publication of the results the Scottish Government said: "The analysis has shown the importance of understanding the influence of non-patient factors such as the individual GP practice and size of GP practice.
"It suggests that individual GP practices can play an important role in looking at ways to improve the experiences of their patients especially around access, continuity of care and staff."
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